WASHINGTON — Following President Obama’s lunch meeting with Senate Republicans on Capitol Hill, Maine Republican Senator Susan Collins described the food served and said the president was not able to eat since his 'taster' was not present.

“He looked longingly at it,” Collins continued. “He honestly did look longingly at it, but apparently he has to have essentially a taster, and I pointed out to him that we were all tasters for him, that if the food had been poisoned all of us would have keeled over so, but he did look longingly at it and he remarked that we have far better food than the Democrats do, and I said that was because I was hosting.”

According to a 2009 AFP report, the U.S. Secret Service has “always refused to confirm that US presidents travel with a food ‘taster’, in line with their policy of discretion on all security related issues.”

This is such an unbelievable story. Do they swab the food? Use the family dog? Use a child from some Russian orphanage? Just is so totally bizzare. Of corse didn't that guy from Ukraine get poisoned a few years back?

U.S. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine is co-sponsoring a bill to boost offshore wind energy generation, which is being aggressively pursued in the state.

Collins, a Republican, joins Democratic Sen. Tom Carper of Delaware in introducing the Incentivizing Offshore Wind Power Act. A House version of the bill is also being introduced.

The proposals provide financial incentives for investment in offshore wind energy. They seek to extend investment tax credits for the first 3,000 megawatts of offshore wind facilities placed into service, or about 600 wind turbines.

The sponsors say the tax credits are vital for wind energy technology because of the longer lead time for the permitting and construction of offshore wind turbines, compared to onshore wind energy.-----------------

Note: Just taking a break from the grandchildren and HTML hell.... If either Susan Collins or Angus King gave me something to eat (or ingest) I'd refuse too... This is just another dog and pony show. The GOP is waiting to strike deals regarding offshore ANYTHING.

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Furthermore, it must be a psychological condition for POTUS... He damn well knows about the plate of shit we've been served.